The mob in Didsbury in 1793 …………… opposing progress and the ideas of the day

January 1793 was an uncertain time across the country.  

Didsbury in 1853

The weather was unseeingly cold, the harvest had been poor, and in France the survival of the monarchy was in doubt.

All of which might explain why a crowd gathered to watch as an effigy of that well-known radical, Thomas Paine was burned on the village green in front of the two village pubs.*

And after the event some of the crowd will have settled down in the Old Cock, and the Ring o’Bells which would be rebuilt as the Church Inn and is now the Didsbury Hotel.

Just how many of those swapping stories in the two pubs, were in favour of Tom Paine, and how many had taken against the man who supported both the American and the French Revolutions, we will never know, but our two publicans may well have been pleased at the turn of events which brought in the customers.

The crowd who assembled to see the event may have been driven by a fear of Paine’s ideas or out of sheer curiosity, but they weren’t alone, because in all that orgy of burning, Bromsgrove in Worcestershire was “the only town in England in which an effigy of Tom Paine was not burned”, leaving the Manchester Guardian to add that there in Bromsgrove, “Democracy predominates.”**

Thomas Paine, 1792

And that leads me to the only description of a burning that we have for Manchester, which was the one carried out on December 17th 1792,
"The inhabitants at top Deansgate, hanged the effigy of Tom Paine, dressed in a Maroon coloured Coat, Striped Waistcoat, and greasy pair of Breeches, a Barber’s Block with a Wig on supplied the Place of a Head, from his Coat Pockets hung shreds of Paper and on the shoulder a Quantity of Thread, emblematical of his deviant Trade, with ‘The Rights of Man’ stitched on his Breast; thus he hung an Hour, amidst the Acclamations of Hundreds of Spectators; he was afterwards dragged through the Streets, and then committed to the flames the Populace singing ‘God Save the King’"***

This event came during a surge of ‘loyalism’ in Manchester where a carefully crafted campaign had been waged against those who had embraced the French Revolution and argued for a Radical ideas.

In the same month, the home of Thomas Walker on South Parade was attacked by an organized mob of Church and King supporters, and Walker was forced to drive them off by discharging a pistol.

Writing later of the event he commented,

“Emboldened by drink and fired on by agitators, groups hostile to the radicals began to gather around the city.  Walker was in no doubt that this was pre-planned.  

Thomas Walker, 1794

Parties were collected in different public houses, and from thence paraded in the streets with a fiddler before them, and carrying board on which was painted with CHURCH and KING in large letters’ 

On four separate occasions a mob gathered outside South Parade, broke the windows and attempted to force their way in.  Supported by friends Thomas Walker was forced to fire into the air to disperse the crowds. 

The magistrates did nothing to prevent the events and while a “regiment of dragoons was in town, booted and under arms” and ready to disperse the rioters no order was given. 

As if to add insult to injury the main concern of the magistrates when they finally met Walker was that he should not fire at the crowd again if the mob returned!  These attacks had been matched by similar ones on the home of Priestly in Birmingham and in Nottingham.” ****


Location; Didsbury and Manchester

Pictures; Thomas Paine, 1792, Thomas Walker. 1794, Didsbury showing the Church Inn and Old Cock, 1853, from the OS for Lancashire, 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Axon, William, The Annals of Manchester, 1885, page 120

** Bromsgrove, Manchester Guardian, January 20th, 1793

***Manchester Mercury, January 1, 1793, quoted by O’Gorman Frank, Manchester Loyalism in the 1790s from Return to Peterloo Manchester Region History Review, Volume 23 2012

**** Walker, Thomas, A Review of some of the events of the last five years, London 1794 page 23

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 13, the school photograph

Continuing the story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

I have no idea of the date but would guess sometime in the early 20th century, if not a little earlier.  If that is the case the picture will have been taken in the yard of the old school on the green, which was built in 1878, replaced an earlier one from the 1840s which in turn had replaced an even earlier school.  In the way of things school photographs do not change over much.  They are drawn from a range of the social groupings, and the children stare back with that mix of seriousness, curiosity and in the case of the little girl on the second row a delightful smile.  In many ways their school experiences would be not so different from their parents but a world away from those of today.

Location; Chorlton

Picture; from the Lloyd collection, date unknown

Back in Sidcup in 1961, at the war memorial

I think this will be the last from the series of Sidcup in 1961.

This is the war memorial and our commercial photographer decided on just one more which was a close up of the parish church.

I have to confess I have never visited either but armed with this picture postcard I think I shall go looking for both next time I am home in Well Hall.

Picture; War Memorial, Sidcup, from the set Sidcup by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/

Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester .......... nu 78 Gaythorn Street and a pub

I like the way that a demolition site can reveal a rare glance of a building which has pretty much been hidden for a very long time.

The City Road Inn, 2016

In the case of the City Road Inn it is more that it dispels the idea that this is a very big pub.

Seen from the corner of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street the pub looks to be a big place but looks can be deceptive and as Andy’s photograph shows the building is much smaller.

It was built in the late 19th century but stands on the site of an earlier pub which carried the same name back to 1849 when it was the Hawthorn Tavern.

And for those wanting more on the lost streets of Manchester,  Whitworth Street West was originally Gaythorn Street and predates the Rochdale Canal which runs along its northern side.

Gaythorn Street, 1794

As early as the 1790s part of the southern side beside Knott Mill was already developed and within half a century the area was a densely packed mix of small back to backs, some bigger properties and a few closed courts.

And no sooner had the story gone out when P J Thompson added the comment, "When did the nearby Gaythorn Tavern disappear? 

It was still there around 1980-ish."

The Gaythorn Inn, 1971

Now I had assumed that the Gaythorn had gone a long time ago and had become part of the City Road Inn.
But not so and again I have P J to thank who came up with a picture and the comment,

"Definitely not, it was on the junction of Albion Street. and Hewitt Street."

All of which will send me back off into the wonderful realms of research, and of course offer up a thank you to PJ.

Hewitt Street, 1954

And in turn let me wander back across the Local Image collection , where I found this one of the same pub in 1954.

Now I do like it but then I have always been a sucker for pictures through arches.

But as we have strayed someone what from the original post I shall stop three.

Location; Manchester






Picture; the City Road Inn, 2016, from the collection of Andy Robertson, the Gaythorn Inn, 1971, A Dawson, m49641, Hewitt Street 1954 H Mulligan, m26104, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the map of the area from Green's map of Manchester, 1794, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

A history of Chorlton in just 20 objects number 12 ....... an engraved silver cup 1917

Continuing the  story of Chorlton in just a paragraph. They are in no particular order, and have been selected purely at random.

Presented to the Wesleyan Church by the Wounded Soldiers of the Wesleyan School Hospital Xmas 1917.  I doubt whether many people know that during the Great War we had two voluntary hospitals here in Chorlton.   One was in the Methodist Sunday school building on Manchester Road and the other in the Sunday School of the MacLaren Memorial Baptist Church on the corner of Wilbraham and Sibson Road.  Sadly little has survived in the form of records.  We have a few newspaper references, letters from some of the medical staff and patients, and a contemporary account in a Red Cross book of the work undertaken to care for the recovering soldiers. So this silver engraved cup is an important object recording not only the gratitude of the soldiers but the voluntary efforts of the people of Chorlton.






Picture; courtesy of Philip Lloyd

Lost on Sidcup High Street, looking for Boots the Chemist

Now I am on a roll.

Having recently wandered up Sidcup High Street in 1961  as far as the old ABC, I back again today.

It is another picture postcard from Tuck and Son but sadly without a message on the reverse.

Still it will bring back memories for some at least with that collection of shops which include Woolworths, K Shoes and Boots.

Picture; Sidcup High Street, from the set Sidcup by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://www.tuckdb.org/

A bit of history on Beech Road ……

It’s Sunday and so it’s left over day.

Left over Sunday, 2026

One of the joys of growing old is the sheer reservoir of food memories that sit ready to tumble out and become one of those simple meals using the odd items which sit neglected and in need of some attention.

101 Beech Road, circa 1901-1921

And while I have embraced that now popular mantra of shop daily and use stuff up, Monday is the start of the week and with that comes the main shopping expedition.

I do smile at that now received knowledge that we should shop everyday and avoid food waste.

As if these twin guides to life are new, and were not practised by my parents, grandparents and a whole legion of Simpson’s, Hall’s, and Bux’s back into the distant past.

Online shopping, the power of the supermarket and the fridge and freezer have rather pushed the daily trip to the local shops into the background.

And well with in living memory here on Beech Road there were three butchers, two grocers, a greengrocer and a fresh fish shop.  

These were replicated in some of the side streets right across what became known as old Chorlton or the old village, names which distinguished us it from the newer community which sprang from the 1880s around the junction of Barlow Moor and Wilbraham Roads.

101 Beech Road, circa 1901-1921

119 Beech Road, 1979

Back then when no one possessed a fridge or freezer there was a necessity in buying your food every day.

Now with money tight it makes sense to buy smaller amounts and avoid the two for one offers unless you can use the lot, which is why today I have used up the last of the green beans, cooking them with some olives, and capers in a sauce from the last tomatoes accompanied with pasta.

I have made my own fresh pasta, and fallen back on shop bought fresh pasta, but dried pasta is cheaper, lasts in the store cupboard and doesn’t take much longer to cook.

So that is it, on left over Sunday it is what ever I can find, and for good measure having eaten my way through a heap of fruit what was left was stewed and became that classic 1950s pud.

Left over Sunday, 2026

Location; Left over Sunday

Pictures; 101 Beech Road, circa 1901-1921, courtesy of Ian Collier, and 119 Beech Road, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson